February 2011 Alberta Economic Fundamentals

[Ally]

Premier call bitumen investent 'bold step'





CALGARY - Alberta is taking a "bold step" by directly investing in business, Premier Ed Stelmach said Wednesday, as he confirmed the province will supply bitumen it receives as royalties to a $5-billion oilsands upgrader.




The premier compared backing the North West Upgrading project northeast of Edmonton to moves by earlier Tory governments to create ATB Financial, buy into Syncrude Canada and launch Telus Corp. predecessor AGT Ltd.




"If the benefits of the oilsands accrue to Albertans, why shouldn't Albertans, as owners of the resource, make their own investment?" challenged Stelmach during an announcement in Fort Saskatchewan, just northeast of the capital.




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[Ally]

Alberta gives boost to plan for new upgrader




The Alberta government is directing a chunk of the province`s oil sands production to a proposed $5-billion upgrader, giving the long-awaited project the capacity necessary to ignite construction plans.




Alberta on Wednesday said it will supply the proposed upgrader with 37,500 barrels of bitumen per day, provided by production royalties the government will collect from oil sands companies. The upgrader is a joint venture between North West Upgrading Inc., a private company, and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., (CNQ-T47.250.020.04%) which will send 12,500 barrels of bitumen per day to the facility.



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[Ally]

Calgary business coalition backs secondary suites





Members of Calgary`s business community are standing united in their platform to see the city follow through with approving secondary suites.







Five organizations including the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, Calgary Real Estate Board and the Canadian Home Builders` Association, announced yesterday they strongly support the need for suites.







`I think what we`re trying to do is send a clear signal that this is, while it may seem like a community or residential issue, it is also an issue important to business,` said Adam Legge, president and CEO of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce.





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[Ally]

Bitumen deal on tap





A provincial bitumen royalty supply deal expected to kick-start the $5-billion North West upgrader project is to be announced this morning.




Partners North West Upgrading and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., both based in Calgary, were to sign the agreement Tuesday with the province under the bitumen royalty in kind or BRIK program, becoming the first recipients of a scheme for encouraging more bitumen upgrading in Alberta.




Premier Ed Stelmach and his cabinet are scheduled to be in Fort Saskatchewan, just northeast of Edmonton, for the announcement this morning.




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[Ally]

Job gains along the corridor








Employment in Alberta has finally begun to show solid signs of bouncing back after a disappointingly slow job recovery for most of 2010. However, recent job gains have been uneven across the province and some regions have benefited more than others.





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[Ally]

Edmonton City Centre airport redevelopment proposals go public







EDMONTON ` Darrell Bateman spent part of Wednesday afternoon at Edmonton City Hall perusing the five proposals for the redevelopment of the City Centre Airport lands.




The 48-year-old was one of about a dozen people viewing videos, reading display boards and filling out comment sheets as they browsed the proposals developed by five international design teams.




`I`m hoping this progresses, because it`s a game-changer for the city,` Bateman said as he looked over the design by Kansas City-based BNIM. `Just the fact that we have a huge chunk of land in the middle of the city that we can revitalize, bring in new residents, businesses, a new focal point for the city.`




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[Ally]

Calgary region house sales and prices to rise in 2011: CMHC





CALGARY - Resale activity in Calgary's housing market is expected to pick up this year while average MLS sale prices increase slightly as well, says Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. in a report released Thursday.




"We are anticipating a number of positive factors to benefit the housing market in 2011," said Richard Cho, senior market analyst for Calgary for the CMHC. "Increased activity in the energy sector will support employment across a number of industries. We expect to see more full-time jobs being created and higher levels of net migration in Calgary. As such, this will support demand for home ownership as well as for rental accommodations.




"New home construction in 2011 will experience a decline from 2010, mainly due to the gradual level of activity in the early months of the year. New home starts are expected to pick up in the second half of the year as the economy continues to improve and competition from the resale market moderates."




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[Ally]

Alberta pine beetle cull up this winter





EDMONTON - Alberta is deploying some 600 contract workers to cut and burn 170,000 west-central trees this winter in the battle against an ongoing pine beetle infestation, the province said Tuesday.




That`s up from 148,000 trees a year ago.




Alberta Sustainable Resource Development says it has awarded $15 million in contracts with crews in the past six weeks. In total, $30 million in total disaster assistance funding has been allocated this year for field surveys, control work, municipal grants, seed collecting and pheromone monitoring.




The province wants to curtail the spread of beetles north and south along the Eastern Slopes of the Rocky Mountains and halt their spread eastward into the boreal forest.




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[Ally]

Chinese oil firms, a rising power in Canada, aren't 'puppets': Report





PARIS ` Chinese national energy companies, which have shown an increasing interest in Canada as they expand their global reach, aren't "puppets" of the Communist government, according to a new report.







Companies such as PetroChina, which agreed this month to pay $5.4 billion to participate in a natural-gas play with Encana Corp. in British Columbia, are driven by profit motives and not directives from Beijing, according to the Paris-based International Energy Agency.







The report by the IEA, which is funded by 28 member countries, including Canada, also rejected the assumption that the efforts of Chinese corporations could deny access to oil and gas for other importing countries.




Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Edmonton home prices going up: CMHC





EDMONTON - Average MLS home prices in the Edmonton region will increase slightly in 2011, but price gains will pick up in 2012 to record levels, says a Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. forecast released Thursday.




The CMHC`s first-quarter housing market outlook projects the average Multiple Listing Service price in 2011 for the Edmonton census metropolitan area will be $331,500 ` an increase of about 0.8 per cent from 2010 when it was $328,803.




But the price will rise 2.26 per cent in 2012 to $339,000, CMHC said.




`Buyers` market conditions in most Alberta markets will inhibit resale price gains in early 2011,` the federal agency said.




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[Ally]

'An economic turning point' in Edmonton



Local contractors, metal fab shops and module yards have had a rocky ride after being clobbered by falling energy prices in 2008 and a recession in 2009.





As oilsands projects in the Fort McMurray region were delayed and customer orders dried up, suppliers had to trim their payrolls and scale back operations.




That's a key reason why the Capital Region's once-sizzling economy went stone cold in 2009, shrinking by four per cent and doubling the local jobless rate to eight per cent.




But there's been a slow but steady rebound in the oilsands since, and Edmonton's economic engine is revving up once again.




Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Nexen sees shale gas joint venture next year





CALGARY - Nexen Inc. on Thursday said it is lifting a page from playbooks of other unconventional gas drillers by bringing in a partner to help develop large shale resources in northeastern British Columbia.




The company has retained Bank of America to find potential suitors for shale gas properties including Horn River, Cordova and Liard, that could result in a deal in the second half of the year, CEO Marvin Romanow said.




The company has previously estimated that its share of Horn River could hold as much as 14 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and Romanow said the value of the asset exceeds "the limited reserve base" discovered to date.




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[Ally]

Calgary inflation rate lowest in country





CALGARY - Consumer prices rose in January by only 0.7 per cent in the Calgary region compared with a year ago - the lowest rate of inflation in the country, according to Statistics Canada.




Also, Alberta's rate of inflation was 1.0 per cent which was the lowest rate as well among all the provinces.




In a research note, Dan Sumner, economist with ATB Financial in Calgary, said that in the province the largest inflationary pressures are coming from the transportation sub-index as gasoline prices are up 11.4 per cent over January 2010.




Food prices are also up 1.9 per cent due partly to higher meat prices, although the strong Canadian dollar is keeping prices for imported food, mainly fruits and vegetables, down, explained Sumner.




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[Ally]

India looking at oilpatch





CALGARY - After taking a back seat to China, India is finally ready to make an entrance on the Canadian energy scene, officials from the country's petroleum ministry said last week.




Indian officials were in Calgary to drum up investment and promote the country's latest licensing round just as PetroChina made a $5.4-billion foray into Encana Corp.'s unconventional natural gas play.




Although the purpose of the trip was ostensibly to gain Canadian investment in India, Sunil Kumar Srivastava, the director general of hydrocarbons at the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, confirmed that Indian officials were also here to discuss investments in Canada, specifically in the oilsands.




Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Encanada inks $54-billion joint venture with PetroChina





CALGARY - Encana Corp. on Wednesday announced the largest Chinese investment in Canada to date, signing a $5.4 billion natural gas venture in northeastern BritishColumbia and Alberta.




Under terms of the deal PetroChina will acquire a 50 per cent interest in Encana's Cutbank Ridge gas production and facilities. An accompanying co-operation agreement will see the two companies would establish a 50/50 joint venture grow natural gas production from the Cutbank Ridge lands, the company said in a news release.




In a statement, Encana CEO Randy Eresman described the agreement as a "milestone" for the company that culminates nine months of negotiations that began with the signing of a memorandum of agreement last spring in Ottawa.




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[Ally]

Basement suites can be fraught with pitfalls





Many wannabe landlords considering adding secondary suites to their single-family houses in Calgary are in wait mode while city council considers changing the rules.




Under one proposal, suites would be allowed in all neighbourhoods regardless of zone, but only if the owner lives in the building and there's plenty of parking.




But, legalities aside, if you were allowed to have a suite in your basement, would it really be worthwhile?




Is it possible to earn enough from renting out part of your house to make the renovations, the work, the headaches and the loss of privacy all pay off?




Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Calgary-based Boardwalk reports sharp net earnings increase





CALGARY - Increased occupancy and a slight jump in average rent has boosted net earnings for Calgary-based Boardwalk Real Estate Investment Trust in both its fourth quarter and fiscal 2010.




Boardwalk said it had net earnings of $23.3 million in the fourth quarter, up by 56.4 per cent from the same period a year ago ($14.9 million) and net earnings of $71.7 million for the year, up 15.5 per cent from a year ago ($62.1 million).




Sam Kolias, chief executive of Boardwalk, called the fourth quarter a "solid one" for the trust.




"In the fourth quarter of 2010, all of our markets have gained occupancy as we enter a period where we are seeing incentives begin to decrease in the Alberta and Quebec markets," he said. "Higher occupancy has allowed us to increase market rents on a selective basis as per our revenue maximization strategy."




Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Major retail/commercial development proposed for Canada Olympic Park





CALGARY - WinSport Canada is planning a huge retail/commercial development at Canada Olympic Park that would include a grocery store, retail stores, restaurants and two hotels, the Herald has learned.




The proposed development, subject to city approval, would be about 400,000 square feet. Retail stores would be geared to promoting healthy, active lifestyles and the hotels would accommodate 300 rooms - one family-based and a larger one with a spa and conference centre.




The proposal is currently before the City of Calgary. It includes the sale of about 22 hectares of land to a developer.




The proposal is geared to complement current use at Canada Olympic Park, raise capital for the facility and create an ongoing cash flow.




Read the full article here.

 

[Ally]

Alberta is getting its police academy





Alberta is getting its police academy.







Premier Ed Stelmach has announced a long-delayed training center, based in Fort Macleod, is going ahead four years after ground was supposed to have been broken on the project. Now the academy, which according to the Calgary Herald will cost between $120 and $150-Million-dollars, should see a ground-breaking ceremony in the summer of 2012.







When it's up and running, the school will train 14-hundred officers a year including police, fish & wildlife and corrections officers, and according to Premier Stelmach perhaps Sheriffs and members of the R.C.M.P.







Besides basic training, the center will be fully-equipped for advanced and specialized training.





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[Ally]

Western shift in Canadian economy gaining momentum





CALGARY, AB, Feb. 20, 2011/ Troy Media/ ` It`s been ongoing for decades already, but the westward drift in Canada`s economic centre of gravity will gain even more momentum in 2011. Here are the top ten reasons why:






10. Better fiscal environment: Saskatchewan is running a surplus. BC and Manitoba are close. And while Alberta is still running a pretty hefty deficit, the province is debt free and has plenty of savings to dip into. Ontario, on the other hand, is in some trouble. It`s not comparable to Greece (as some commentators have suggested), but big spending cuts and/or tax increases will eventually hit the province ` and probably Quebec, too.






9. Agriculture: It doesn`t happen too often, but crop farmers in western Canada may actually be smiling this spring. If moisture conditions hold up (and the snow pack this winter suggests they will), it could be a very good year for wheat, barley and canola growers. Prices are stellar.




Read the full article here.